My aim is to help travellers see more of the real Europe by getting, even slightly, off the beaten track. The blog is an interactive extension of my website where I have destination guides,accommodation and restaurant reviews, photos, travel news and travel tips.
I work part time as a freelance social survey interviewer as well as running my travel business. I do enjoy being out and about interviewing as I spend a lot of time sitting at the computer for my travel business. It takes time to build up your own business and I’m fortunate that I have another source of income which is flexible for example if I find a cheap flight I can just say I don’t want to do any interviewing that specific week.
I received an email from a student doing research for her disseration about travel business blogs. I did some reading up about business blogs and decided to start a blog for my travel business.I read that blogs are a really good way of promoting your business. They are ideal for small businesses as they don’t need a large marketing budget. However it does take a lot of effort to research and write the blog, it’s no quick fix. You have to be pretty dedicated to post regularly and keep marketing your blog.
I had already written quite a lot of material for my website so I’d had some practise writing articles.
I started the blog in October 2006 although I started my travel business in July 2002.
Approx 100. Mu blog is a niche blog aimed at a minority group of travellers visiting Europe, it’s never going to have mass appeal.
It’s hard for me to answer this as I started the blog as a way to promote my business, rather than as a money making entity. However a few months after starting the blog my Google Pageraink increased from 4 to 5 and I started to get more bookings. I attribute this primarily to the blog.
On the blog I’ve made a few dollars from Google Adsesne but the click through rate on the blog is lower than on the main site. I assume this is because the ads are more in context in the main site than they seem to be in the blog.
I’ve also started to make some money, $30 a review from writing reviews for Reviewme. The payment you receive depends on your overall ranking. I will only write reviews where I can give my honest opinion and disclose that it’s a sponsored post. Some review sites want you to only give positive reviews, they virtually tell you what to write and they request that you don’t mention that’s a paid review. I won’t compromise my integrity by misleading my readers.
Some one interested in a more authentic travel experience in Europe. They’d want to feel that they had experienced some flavour of their destination, not just a quick whizz around the tourist traps.
On average two hours. It’s not just researching and writing posts. I read other blogs and make comments where appropriate. I market my blog by doing interviews like this, contact other bloggers to ask them to do guest posts and interviews. I check the daily stats to see which posts are popular and the incoming and outgoing links.
So you can get more out of your next trip to Europe. Getting off the well worn tourist track not only means you see more of the real Europe but you also save money by vising less well know destinations where accommodation and food is generally less expensive.
You have to stick with it, some days you can’t be bothered, some days you’re too busy with other things, some days you can’t think of anything to write about. You have to be passionate about what you write and this enthusiasm will shine through and make your posts appealing.
The challenge for a business blog is to provide your readers with interesting, informative material whilst promoting your business. If a reader gets any hint that it’s just a sales pitch they won’t read your blog. However if you write great material but don’t get some financial return though increased sales then you have wasted your time.
You always have to think about the aim of your blog and work towards achieving this aim without getting sidetracked. No point is just starting a blog because you feel you have to do because all your competitors have one.
This blog can be visited at http://www.europealacarte.co.uk/blog