SATW Indy: Blogging for bucks with ThePlanetD
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Our presentation at the Society of American Travel Writers conference in Indianapolis 2012. How to make money from your travel blog.
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SATW Indy: Blogging for bucks with ThePlanetD
- 1. BLOGGING FOR BUCKS WITH
- 3. “Brands are moving away from associating with famous people and moving towards working with people with personality.” TRAVEL BLOGGERS ARE TRAVEL INFLUENCERS Expertise Influence Engaged Audience
- 4. TRAVEL IS SOCIAL •77% of internet users read blogs •52% of blog readers say a post factored into their purchase decision*
- 5. TRAVEL IS SOCIAL •77% of internet users read blogs •52% of blog readers say a post factored into their purchase decision*
- 6. MARKET YOURSELF BRAND BRAND BRAND NICHE NICHE NICHE SUCCESS SUCCESS SUCCESS
- 7. WAYS TO MONETIZE YOUR TRAVEL BLOG
- 9. SPONSORED POSTS •Link in Post •Not a sales piece or review •Usually Destination or Top 10 piece •Charge Flat Fee •Time Limit on Link •Full Disclosure
- 10. BANNER ADVERTISING Monthly Fee, Flat Yearly Rate or CPM Sidebar Site Wide or Home Page Can be within a post or page Different sizes
- 12. On Your Website Contests Advertising Campaigns Revisit Media Trip
- 13. Social Media The 2011 social media outreach campaign, including #GoJordan, was immensely successful, leading to Jordan being on travelers’ minds and on many top travel lists, including Conde Nast Traveler, New York Times Travel, Virtuoso, and National Geographic, among many others. Jordan Tourism Board Visit Jordan's 2011 in Social Media Report Manage Build Engage
- 14. Business Longevity Spokesperson Brand Ambassador Embedded Blogger Sponsorship Consulting Run your own tours Find the Right Fit
- 15. SPOKESPEOPLE Interviews on T.V, Print & Radio Represent at trade shows Bloggers Represent Organization Featured on Blog
- 16. AMERICAN EXPRESS: BRAND AMBASSADOR Blog posts Banner Ads with Trackable Links Readers choose Adventure Social Media Awareness Multi-blogger campaigns - contest promotions
- 17. EMBEDDED BLOGGER Blogger covers event Social Media Campaign Branded Videos Write for company website Two Fold - content on own and companies website
- 18. SPONSORSHIP All encompassing Spokespeople Sponsored posts Social Media Mutually Beneficial
- 19. LEAD TOURS Use Celebrity to sell a tour Expertise of Travel Experience Using talent Harness Social Media to advertise
- 20. OTHER IDEAS Writing for Websites Outside Travel Niche Syndication in Papers and Online Magazines Travel Videos - Branded Videos, Ads Licensing for Mobile Apps Creating Travel Apps Online Magazine
- 21. QUESTIONS? www.theplanetd.com Twitter: @theplanetd Facebook: ThePlanetD email: info@theplanetd.com
Notas del editor
- Thank you for having us today here at the SATW, We’re very excited to be talking to you about how to make money with your travel blog because it is an exciting time in the industry. and it is wonderful to see so many people out here willing to embrace the online world. \nIt can be very confusing when deciding to monetize your blog. A lot of people think it involves selling text links, or scrounging for banner ads, but there is so much more to it than that. \n\n
- We’ve had a lot of experience working with companies\nOver the past 3 years we have worked on building relationships with companies that we believe in and have established ourselves as one of the leaders in partnering with corporations and destinations to raise their profile both offline and on.\nWe’re currently working with such sponsors as Intrepid Travel, American Express and Expedia.com. \nWe have led social media campaigns, hosted twitter chats and created contests all where we make money. Companies use our influence to promote their product. \n\nvisit lanai, housetrip, in costa brava, visit catalunya\n
- Travel bloggers are travel influencers and it is by harnessing this influence and expertise that you will truly be able to make money with your blog. \nIt will take you at least a year before you can make any type of real money because you have to build your brand and gain the trust of your readers. \nExpertise, what is your target audience and what can you offer them? Are you a food and wine specialist, or a family travel expert. Think about what will keep them coming back to you blog each day and who will be reading your blog. \nThis will help you decide which companies are relevant to your brand and are a good fit. \nThese companies will be hiring you for your influence over your audience. If the company doesn’t fit yoru brand, you won’t have any influence. But you also have to take into account how informed yoru audience it. \nYou need to focus on building your audience, your credibility and influence before you can effectively begin to think about making big bucks when blogging. \n\n
- Travel has become more social. Social media has changed the way people search for travel, where they get information and how they make those purchase descions.\nPersonal recommendations carry more weight now than they ever did. Consiumers are searching within sm platforms in addition to Google and those numbers are on the rise.\nCompanies are hiring bloggers for their influence and whether you like it or not, your influences is in the social market. \nWe spend more time on social media than we do on our blog and pay attention to our facebook and twitter analytics than our google analytics. \nSo you need to have a FB Page you need to have a twitter account etf. If you don’t you are potentially throwing away a lucrative way of monetizing your blog and business.\nIt is how you interact and build your brand online that will lead you into success.\n\n
- Cornerstone of standing out from the rest of the pack and building a business id developing your personal brand. \nEvery successful travel blogger has a strong brand and a strong niche. \nYou have to think beyond travel writing, you will wear many hats. You are the marketer, the social media manager, the accountant and the photographer, so you have to keep that niche consistent in everything that you do. You have to become a business and build the branding. \nWhen you have a strong brand, you can target your audience and be clear as to who you are talking to. You can then align yourself with companies that fit your brand and your niche and easily influence your readers with what ot buy.\nBut you have to build trust and credibility first. \n\n\n
- So as we said, you can’t just go out and start making big money tomorrow. Like any business, you have to build your foundation and credibility before you can begin to start making money.\nSo let’s get into it, let’s look at the ways you can monetize your travel blog. \nWe are going to start with some traditional ways, some quick and easy ways to get you started that you can start implementing immediately, and then we are going to build on more creative ways to make money. and more lucrative ways to make money. \n
- The first would be affiliate sales. Amazon,commission junction, share a sale, skimlinks and google affiliates\nWhat is affiliate marketing. A company pays you a percentage or commission to sell their product. \nFirst you have to sign up at an affiliate company. Look for travel companies and products that you want to sell on your website. \nMostly this is done through banner ads. \nYou sign up and link your website and then you wait for their approval. \neg - Lonely Planet - When someone clicks on the banner and buys the product, you make a commission. \nWrite a well seod post about photography, put in links to smug and have people sign up. \nA post about a destination, make a link to a lonely planet or frommer guide. \n\n\n
- You or the company writes and article. \nMostly they are destination or top 10 pieces. \nPersonal choice, you dont’ have to \nBed and Breakfast in Ireland....link to the bnb\nDisclosure, brought to you by XYZ BnB\nYear, renewal\nFlat\n\n
- By no means should this be the only way that you could be making money. You need to diversify.\nCan be in a post - If you have an article all about Italy Food tour, a company like walks of Italy may want to buy a banner ad within that post. They know it is a highly search competitive market and this could be a great way for them to make sales. \n\nHave a rate sheet for each different ad. 125X125 300X250 120X600\n\nthose are the three very basic traditional ways that people have been making money in the past. But we want to point out that by no means should this be the only way to make money with your TB. You need to diversify. \n\n
- If you have a service or information that requires more than a blog post, Ebooks are great, you can build it yourself. You don’t have to wait for the publisher to approve it, you can publish it yourself and harness your social network to promote it. EJunkie, Click Bank, amazon\nIf you have more info that needs to go a step further, online course - Dave Go Backpacking\nAfter you take your course, follow up consulting to course or ebooks. \nAs you get more well known and develop a following, you could start your own online magazine. \nPeople ask their social network to review it for them and then they give the reviewer a code for an affiliate sale. \nUsing social networks - reviews, facebook shares and tweets, \nOffer affiliate sales for inscentive 50%\n 20something, artofbackpacking, \n\n\n
- Everything we discussed in Level one can be combined to work with any opportunities in Level 2\nMedia Trips we’re on one now! \nPhotography contest \n5 judges for each colour\nRaised awareness for their brand, positioned them as a fun and innovative company \nWe didn’t have to do a hard sale, we did what we do best, talk about photography, provided a fun contest for our readers to enter and then judged the winner. \nSummer Sale - bloggers, experts - luxury,budget, adventure\n\n
- now let’s change gears and talk about social media. \nWe told you earlier that travel is social, social media is becoming more imporant in monetization strategy. Blogs will always have a place, but social media is where the influence is. That’s where you drive traffic to blogs and brands. \nThis is an excellent way to monetize your business. \nAs you grow your following, you will have a lot of klout and influence and companies will want to utilize your brand to help promote campaigns, contests or just to create a bridge between brand and their consumers. \nThe ways to do this is to. \nLead Twitter or facebook chats. Use a hashtag and answer questions. use our personality\nHost contests on facebook, twitter, pinterest - In Costa Brava, Expedia Find Yours, Budget Air.\nSpain, Aruba and San Diego. - Put up Wildfire App for people to enter online. \nThomas Cook - talked about Mexico\n\n
- So those are ways you can work on a short term way with companies, now we want to highlight long term strategies. These are more complex and involve more time, but pay out more rewards. \n This is your time to be creative and the great thing is that companies are looking for different ways to harness your influence to raise their profile and connect with their consumers. \n\nThink about how companies have used celebrities and athletes to sell their products. \nThink of clever advertising campaigns and then create your own. Think of the fun campaigns, Where the Hell is matt dancing around the world and how he partnered with Stride. That was a fun campaign, and that is what companies are looking for. \nThink about how they can use your expertise to partner and work with companies. \n\n
- AMEX - Just like a model talks about the makeup they use, \nYou take a brand that you believe in and partner with them and discuss the benefits of their product. \nWe work with AMEX travel insurance and at this point, we aren’t even writing about them on our blog\nAs a spokesperson, you have to educate yourself. \nWe have to know statistics and company policies, \nWe have to know the results of studies, and be able to be interviewed and answer in an informed way to provide information to listeners and readers. \nJust like Angie Jolie is a Spokesperson for the UN, We’re spokes people for AMEX insurance, we’re just not saving the world in the same way. \n\n
- We partnered with AMEX because it’s a card that we use. It was the first card in travel so it is a natural fit. So when we talked to them about how to make a campaign, we decided to go around the world and see if AMEX is accepted everywhere, that was our challenge and that the the fun of the campaign. \nNot hard sale - how we used it from England to Mongolia - It was fun, it was our way of writing, it was easy, we used it to buy groceries in Kazakhstan, to fill up in Siberia and to eat out in Mongolia. That shattered the myth that AMEX isn’t accepted anywhere. \n
- We covered the running of the bulls and didn’t even have to write about it on our blog. We simply put out tweets in real time. We sent out Instagram photos and made branded videos. It was all aobut raising brand awareness doing what we do best, having an adventure. \nWe wrote posts for their blog, it was two fold, we receive publicity, they get content for their blog. \n\n
- Finally we want to talk about full on sponsorship. We work with Intrepid Travel. \nIt’s all encompassing. you’re the spokesperson, brand ambassador, social media representative and embedded blogger all in one. \nIt’s mutually beneficial - we show up in their newsletter and we show up on their facebook fanpage and twitter account, we have an online dialogue and people associate us with intrepid travel. \nThey send us on trips that we choose, \nWe have input on tours, we contribute to their newsletter and brochures. \nThis is exclusive. Money reflect the exclusivity. \n\n
- -Who knows travel better than bloggers. \n-Bloggers are celebrities, but relatable. our fans want to travel with us\n-Design tours, Lead niche...food, adventure, culture\n-photography for brochures, video for you tube, content for website\nPut in Wanderlust and lipstick - Bhutan, Papua new Guinea female focused\n\n
- -We write for financial websites discussing budget travel tips, \n-Explore, Washington Post - Expertise - we’ve been invited to write a column for the Washingtonpost and Explore Magazine and Afar Magazine.... They know that they can utilize our influence to drive traffic to our site, we can use them for more income and credibility as travel writers. \n-We’re in the process of putting Pre rolls roll in ads onto our videos. And also, branded videos with our partners that we have worked with. \n-Licensing for Mobile Apps - Flipbooks and Makkom - \n\n
- \nCelebrities and athletes have been doing it for years, the online world is just beginning and it’s your turn to take advantage of the trend now. \n\nCatch the wave, think of ways to harness your brand, your expertise, your influence. \nGet on board now. \n