If you have been to a travel conference or trade show of any kind, you know that you will walk out with stacks of business cards. Everyone you meet gives you one. So if you are like me, you put a rubber band around them and throw them in your luggage. Then what do you do with them?
Travel Blog Exchange: Food Blogger Andrew Dobson Recommends Toronto Restaurants for Every Occasion
I met Andrew Dobson during a site visit to Toronto. His energy, love for the city, and fabulous food recommendations convinced me that he would be a great addition to our TBEX line up, as we expand our reach into the food and culinary niches. With the theme of “Eat Well, Travel Hard, Live Better”, Andrew’s blog Dobbernation Loves serves up slices of life and food around the world.
Toronto Revealed: Travel Bloggers Podcast About the TBEX 2013 Host City
We know TBEXers are excited to see what Toronto and the surrounding area have to offer, both during TBEX and on trips they’ve planned before and after, but here’s the dilemma – with twice as many bloggers set to descend on the city as were at TBEX in Keystone, telling a unique story is going to be an even bigger challenge than it usually is. Rather than settle for letting your blog posts sound and look like every other attendee’s, then, it will be important to do your homework in advance to find story angles that will make your experiences stand out. To get more information on what to expect from the city and start to brainstorm your story angles, here’s an interview with Tourism Toronto.
DMOs: 5 Signs You’re Working With the Wrong Travel Blogger
Most bloggers have traded “PR fail” stories – the spectacularly off-target pitch, the “dear sir” email to a female blogger, the unsolicited sending of enormous files – but destination marketing organizations (DMOs) have their own set of “fail” stories when it comes to working with bloggers. When forming a DMO-blogger working partnership, it’s critical to make sure it’s a good fit in order to avoid those failures. Sometimes it’s easy to spot a yellow flag early – and sometimes it’s not. Here, one travel PR professional lists five reasons that he says “no” to blogger press trip requests – or that make him vow not to work with a blogger a second time.
Travel Bloggers: How to Prepare & Pitch for TBEX Speed Dating
Without a doubt, TBEX is one of the most important conferences for travel bloggers. This is the place where you learn and improve your blogging skills, meet and network with fellow bloggers, and also meet interesting companies who want to work with you. Whether you are a starting blogger or an established high-profile blogger, chances are you want to work with companies. Here are a couple of tips for anyone who is interested in pitching companies at TBEX Toronto.
Travel Blog Exchange: 10 Ways to Build Your Audience Before & After You Hit Publish
We know how satisfying it is to publish a well-written travel blog post, post a gorgeous photo, or record an informative podcast. But without an audience on the receiving end of all that great content, it’s more of a one-way conversation than most of us would like. What can you do to help build an audience for your work, besides handing out flyers on the street corner?
Travel Blog Exchange: Organized Blogger Sharing Groups – Yay or Nay?
No matter what end of the blogging ladder you’re on now, no doubt you’ve looked at some point for ways to make the climb easier. After all, who doesn’t love the idea of a fast lane to success? Today, we’ve got two takes on organized blogger groups – first from someone who thinks such groups represent a way to launch a blog to the top of the heap, and then from someone who thinks bloggers who don’t look outside those insular groups are targeting the wrong audience. Is there a magic pill? Or are these the emperor’s new clothes?
Travel Bloggers: 5 Photography Composition Tips You May Not Know
Most travel bloggers serve double-duty as both writers and photographers, even though we tend to be better at one than the other. Even if you’re not a professional photographer, however, you can learn easy techniques to improve your photography and make it more visually appealing. Today’s guest post by Kim Olson gives you five composition tips that will add variety to your shots.
No, I Don’t Want to Sign Up for Your Mailing List (And Here’s Why)
I need more emails like I need a hole in the head. I recommend that every online content creator out there has a mailing list, but I actually sign up for very few of them personally. I think mailing lists are great, but some people could have more subscribers if they used their lists slightly differently.
5 Reasons Your Sponsorship Pitch Failed
We know that not every request travel bloggers make to destinations, publications, tour companies, and others in the travel industry will get a “yes” – but it may not always be clear why that proposal you thought was so great was rejected (or, worse yet, never got a reply at all). In this guest post, Viator’s Commissioning Editor, Katie Hammel, discusses some of the reasons why she has said no to sponsorship pitches in the past – and some of the lessons she’s learned as she’s sent out pitches of her own.
