9 Simple Ways To Make Your Travel Blog More Popular

Last Updated on January 7, 2019

One of the hardest things I struggled with when I was actually wanting to press that “publish” button.  I was so scared of opinions, and if people were going to hate it or love it – but one thing I learnt over the years is that if you don’t shout your travel blog from the rooftops (or mountains), you will never get noticed.  Getting people to your blog is super important for obvious reasons so I have created this list of 9 things you need to start doing in order to gain that traction in the travel blogging atmosphere, which has tremendously helped me over the past year!

9 simple ways to make your travel blog more popular right now!

1. Join Facebook group threads

My number one tip as a travel blogger is to join relevant sharing threads.  The best ones I have joined are:

• We Travel We Blog
• Pinterest for Travel Bloggers
• Travel Bloggers Mega Share

I think I am part of over 30 different Facebook groups that frequently do sharing threads.  The ‘We Travel We Blog’ Facebook group is great because they do a weekly Twitter share thread, which attracts 80-100 travel bloggers.  That means my tweet about one post gets shared a minimum of 80 times that week.  I use Pinterest for Travel Bloggers for when I publish a new post.  The thread usually attracts around 40 people so my pin gets shared 40 times, plus I also share that pin on about 30 different Pinterest boards.  Every little share helps!  One share can mean a bigger account, or that a company or brand will notice your article.  It may soon snowball once they share it too!

2. Create a blog post including other popular travel blogs

Two of my most popular posts, 45 paradises around the world and 65 spectacular paradises around the world, gained huge traction because in the posts I included a bunch of other travel bloggers.  They all included links to their websites and I got my article shared by lots of bloggers who have large audiences that love to travel!  It was a win-win!  Think about doing a post with your favourite bloggers – even if you do an interview with one of them and ask them for their favourite bit of advice for your readers.

3. Tag companies and brands on your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

If you want brands to start noticing your blog you have to let them know!  One of my favourite ways to do that is tagging them throughout my social media.  Make sure the brands are relevant to you, of course, and that they are companies that you actually want to work with in the future.  I even go as far as giving them a message on Facebook and telling them I have a fantastic article that I think their readers or Facebook fans would enjoy, and I sometimes also post it on their Facebook wall.  I gained thousands of new readers when a popular travel Facebook page shared one of my articles!

4. Give your readers something for free

Your readers are loyal to you, they keep coming back for more, and they are helping you turn your dream into a reality – so give them a thank you gift!  Every reader that signs up to my monthly newsletter recieves a travel bundle for free.  It’s not only a great way to keep them happy but also to collect their email addresses for future email campaigns.  Collecting email addresses is the most important thing you should do as a travel blogger.

5. Blog frequently, have a schedule

A blogger that posts twice a week consistently is usually going to have more readers and do better in the future than someone who posts one a month occasionally.  It’s important that you have a schedule in place not only to increase your productivity but also to ensure that your followers know what to expect from you.  No one likes a flake!

6. Create content that people are actually searching for

Make sure your blog is about what you love but also what people want to see and are searching for.  If you want to gain more popularity, you’re going to have to make sure that what you’re posting is relevant (You want it actually to get read right?).  I find out by analysing what people are searching in Google, asking on Quora, Reddit and on other popular travel blogs!  Go to a similar bloggers’ comment section and see what their readers want to know or what they would love to know more about.  Answer their questions!  Take a look at Google’s Keyword Tool as well because it gives you an awesome insight into the keywords that people are searching, the volume, and how competitive the market is.  You should already be doing keyword research anyway for SEO purposes.  Another way is going to BuzzSumo and seeing what articles are popular at the moment and what kind of content is getting shared!

7. Ask people to share your content

One of the most important things you should do when sharing your content is put in a call-to-action.  Did you know that tweets where you ask people to share it get 51% more shares and Pins on Pinterest that have a call-to-action on them get 80% more shares too!  These stats are phenomenal when you’re trying to get your name out, so don’t be afraid to ask! Also, make it easy to share with a sharing bar that’s easily accessible and not annoying.  I use SumoMe for all my sharing needs.

8. Make people obsessed with you

Do something interesting and adventurous.  You don’t want to be following in other people’s footsteps so make sure you give your audience something interesting to read!  Stand out from the rest, whether you take a picture of your food around the world like Legal Nomads or take selfies with cute animals like Allan Dixon.  Think of something original and interesting you can do!

9. Become an expert

Become an expert on something whether it’s a certain location or activity so people come back for more.  If you have a point of interest in one particular topic then that’s a great start to getting constant readers to your site.  Take these blogs for example:

• Hippies in Heels is an expert on the expat life and travelling in India
• Young Adventuress is an expert on Spain and New Zealand
• Nomadic Matt is an expert on budget travel

See what they all have in common?

These are 9 simple ways you can make your travel blog more popular. Have you got any more tips you would love to add to this list?  Please share this article with your blogging friends (see what I did there?).

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