You may have seen Pam Mandel’s post on her blog about Blogher and our invitation to sponsor her attendance at the event and work with her to create a tightly knit travel blog community of some kind–yet to be defined… It didn’t work out because Blogher was sold out by the time we had connected.
On to plan two…
I am still hoping to meet many travel bloggers at Blogher. Why? We would like to build a more connected community of travel bloggers for information sharing, ideas, and inspiration. We think travel bloggers should be found more easily, there should be a means of connecting the related subjects and places discussed on all blogs and personally I could use a few tools to make it easier to include my fellow bloggers. Don’t you agree?
Here are few questions we would like to discuss at the travel meet-up:
1. How can we build a travel blogger community in cooperation with all travel bloggers? Great minds do think alike, right?
2. What other communities do travel bloggers participate in that we could emulate? Does a tool or an application already exists that we can tap into for inspiration or improved communication?
3. If we were to create a “travel blog meet-up” at other conferences, what kind of program would it be, would you attend, would you pay for it? Why or why not?
Pam sent me an email with her answers to these questions (thanks, Pam). We are hoping you too will respond and we can build this together:
How can we build more community for travel bloggers?
Community building isn’t my expertise but I find that anything that encourages face to face meeting is good for the blog. I really have loved the travel bloggers I’ve met in 3D, really loved them. Crazy, but true.
What other communities do travel bloggers participate in that we could emulate?
Boots n All and Lonely Planet have lively message boards. TripWolf is trying to create a Facebook type interactivity, but seems to be a real influx of social networking/travel sites on the market and I’m not clear on how to tell them apart. I just reviewed My Life of Travel, another one with built in networking. Couch Surfing seems to me to be superior at getting the travelers together - I got my 20 year Austrian old niece on there and she can’t get enough of it. I recently spent some time explaining it to my folks. “You mean no money changes hands?” I’m a fan of the concept even while we don’t participate because my blogging connections keep a fairly steady rotation of travelers on our fold out.
Don’t overlook the expats. I got into blogging because I was an expat. It’s great informal community, the expat bloggers one. And Twitter - I’m surprised to find myself saying how much I enjoy the 140 character conversations travelers are having on Twitter. I like it a lot and it’s put me in touch with folks I’d not have “met” otherwise.
If we were to create a travel blog meet up with other conferences, in a more organized fashion, what kind of program would they like, would they attend, would they pay for it? Other ideas…
1. I feel like many bloggers could wildly improve the readability of their blogs with some basic travel writing tips. My .02 as someone who’s really wrapped up in writing.
2. “What’s in your travel kit?” is always a popular subject for bloggers who travel with their own technology.
3. Photography, of course.
4. Given the growing influence of blogs in the travel market, talking about ethics in travel blogging is an interesting, if contentious topic. Travel writers want to take the high road when they’re faced with comped services, but at 10 bucks a post to blog about a destination, it’s hard to pay for your travels, much less make a living. Ethics on writing reviews, communicating with PR folks and travel providers, being transparent to your readers, etc… are all good topics for discussion.
5. Monetization, too, of course - can I make money writing a travel blog?
6. A lot of travel bloggers want to get off the blog into print and other media, how do they do that?
7. Finally, new media, pod casting, video… it’s really fun to work with other forms of blog communication.
Do you have suggestions, ideas or opinions about how to bring the travel community together and build some tools that work for us? If so, email me, comment here, or meet at the meet-up.
Travel bloggers unite.
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2 Responses
I’m oh so grateful to the Uptakerati for the interest and offer of support! And yes, getting together with other travelbloggers is great - we’ve just starting having small gatherings here in Seattle - there are some terrific people doing travel/blog stuff and they’re such fun to hang out with and learn from. Plus they are bursting with enthusiasm for your next trip, no matter where it is, and can’t wait to read your blogging about it.
I hope that BlogHer will offer a panel or a workshop next year or at one of the upcoming tour conferences that addresses any or all of the issues I called out above. Including, suggesting that you, you know, spell-check before you hit send.
With tripwolf we are a social travel guide and community for travel enthusiasts to share their experiences. With our blog we like to involve the tripwolf community by having guest interviewees and sharing travel tips and news with our readers.
There are many travel bloggers using tripwolf, and many users who have started writing personal travel journals. The idea is to share experiences which translate and spreads well among the tripwolf community.
A travel blog meet up sounds like a great idea. We are based in New York City and would like to meet local travel bloggers.