There’s no way around it, growing a travel blog takes time and effort. If you want to see results you have to put in the time and effort to warrant it. That said, there are certainly things you can do to help speed up the process and see those results faster. They’re not shortcuts to success, but more like a map that will help you get to your destination faster than wandering aimlessly.
In this article, we’ll break down a couple tips for growing your travel blog. These are things you should be thinking about whether you’ve looking to start or already have an established blog. These tips should hopefully help you improve regardless of where you are in your blogging journey.
Let Your Passion Guide You
First and foremost, the surest way to see long term growth is to be passionate about what you’re doing. Having a genuine passion in your work does wonders for your motivation, and growing a blog is definitely hard and long work that requires being motivated. You’ll need that motivation and grit if you want to stick it out in the long term.
It also shows through in your work. If you’re not passionate and motivated about your work it’s easy to fall into bad habits. I’m sure we’ve all seen people “phoning it in” so to speak, and it’s clear their quality and output suffers.
If you want to start a travel blog you genuinely need to love traveling and want to share that with people. Otherwise, it’s a good chance you’ll come across as stilted and insincere.
Find Your Niche
It’s also important to figure out what your niche is. Travel blogging is a large category, and there are a lot of ways to drill down to a specific niche.
Having a dedicated niche can help keep you focused, and also helps attract like minded followers. You don’t have to be overly specific in what you choose, and shouldn’t let your niche choice limit you, but having an overall theme for your blog is important.
If you’re looking for some good travel blog niche ideas then we have an article that covers some unique ones you should check out.
Let Your Personality Shine Through
A big part of blogging is letting your personality shine through in your writing. This helps people better connect with you, and shows a bit of the person behind the screen.
How much you decide to share is up to you, and there are certainly limits on what you should. It’s important to remember that you’re still a professional, and that you should treat your blog as business.
That said, personality goes a long way to help your readers connect with you. This ultimately helps you stand out from your competitors. Show people why you’re unique and why your blog is the one that they should follow.
Show Interesting Places
A big part of travel blogging is in the locations, so make sure they’re interesting. It should go without saying that you want to make sure that the places you visit have some sort of appeal and interesting stories you can bring to your readers.
That’s not to say every place has to be the Grand Canyon or the Eiffel Tower, sometimes the mundane can be just as interesting. It all depends on how you tell the story.
Some of my best traveling memories have come from little hole in the wall places that turned into fantastic experiences. Don’t be afraid to share these places if you have a good story to tell about them. It can help differentiate you from everyone else talking about the big name places that everyone goes to. It’s the story that people love, even more so than the location itself.
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
As a travel blogger, images are a huge part of your brand. Talking about an interesting place is one thing, but showing them is another. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
It pays to spend some time learning how to both take and edit good pictures. You don’t need to spend a ton on fancy equipment either, most phones these days are powerful enough to get some incredible shots. In most cases, you’ll be better served learning some basic photography and editing skills then investing a ton of money into fancy equipment. A camera is only as good as the photographer after all.
Expand Your Media
While on the topic of images, expanding your media is also a great way to reach more users. Different media types are going to reach different audiences, and this can help you reach new followers.
Videos are probably the next most popular option and for good reason. A well made video brings a lot of value, and is a great marketing tool. They don’t even have to be complex, quick shots of cool locations make perfect instagram reels or stories. Think about the simple videos you probably see on social media each day, and then look at how many views some of them get. Less if often more, and simple videos of beautiful locations is often enough to pull in viewers.
Outside of that, getting creative can open up a lot of options. Travel themed infographics, for example, can be a good option. Images like this are very shareable, and easy to get a lot of engagements. If you have an eye for design, or use something like Canva, you can easily make similar graphics and get a lot of engagement.
Get Social
Getting on and engaging on social media is another great way to grow your blog. The first step here is simply to be consistent and get posting. Growing any following takes time, and being consistent is the first step to success.
Outside of that it’s also important to engage with your audience and others. Like above, you want to show a bit of your personality and what makes you and your blog unique. People like to see responses to your comments; a few minutes each day engaging with your audience goes a long way.
Practice Writing
Last, but not least, always be looking to improve your writing. A big part of any blog is going to be the written word, so getting better at it will only improve the quality of your content.
Becoming a good writer takes a long time, so don’t feel like it has to happen overnight. The more you write the better you’ll get at it; every piece you write is making you that much better. That’s really all there is to it, there’s no shortcut to writing greatness other than putting in that word count. Think of it like lifting weights at the gym, but instead of bench pressing your conjugating verbs.
It’s also a good idea to look into things like SEO writing to help improve your organic reach. This is a bit more technical, but once you get it you’ll be able to grow that much faster. Basic SEO principles are fairly easy to pick up and can drastically improve how well your content performs in search engines.