{"id":3650,"date":"2014-09-16T16:00:41","date_gmt":"2014-09-16T14:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=3650"},"modified":"2021-11-12T22:24:44","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T21:24:44","slug":"travel-blogging-basics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/travel-blogging-basics\/","title":{"rendered":"Meeting Other Travel Bloggers in Rimini"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"travel<\/a>Welcome back for part two of my series on travel blogging basics. (And when I say basics, I mean for absolute beginners.)\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t read part one yet, you can read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But before we get into that topic, I want to make my first big announcement<\/strong> concerning my own blog.\u00a0 I have been invited as a Top Blogger to TTG Incontri<\/a>, the leading international trade fair for the travel industry in Italy.\u00a0 It takes place in Rimini from Octorber 9th<\/sup> to the 11th<\/sup>, and will include 460 international exhibitors and 500 international buyers in the tourism sector.<\/p>\n

I am exceedingly honored by this invitation, not only for the recognition of my blog, but more importantly, for the opportunity to help further promote tourism throughout Italy.<\/p>\n

This is the second year that they’ve invited selected bloggers from around the world to take part in Travel Blogger Destination Italy<\/a>.\u00a0 The organizers have recognized that blogs are becoming more and more important in the tourism industry as a way to improve online conversations, and raise awareness of tourist operators and destinations.\u00a0 Each blogger has been assigned to one of the four focus groups: Food, Fashion, Culture, and Travel.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A few months ago, I was contacted by fellow blogger Lorenzo from VisitMantua<\/a> who has been charged with selecting and organizing the Culture Group.\u00a0 At first I thought he was joking, dropping hints via Twitter<\/a> that he liked my blog and was bidding for me to be included at the conference.\u00a0 I was in the middle of my summer blog tour at the time, and so I sort of put it aside while I concentrated on surviving six weeks with the in-laws in Sicily. I\u2019m grateful and humbled that they did, in fact, invite me to attend this prestigious event.<\/p>\n

\"Rimini,
Rimini, Italy (from WikiCommons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019ll be joined by a few of my online blogging buddies, such as Elizabeth Joss of The Museum Times<\/a> and Jeff Titelius from EuroTravelogue<\/a>.\u00a0 This is another pleasant aspect of the travel blogging community: I have never actually met either of these two friends in person, but next month we will all come together to share our passion for blogging and Italy travel.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be writing more about this next month, including some “live” updates from Rimini.\u00a0 I know that most of you who follow my blog are as passionate about Italy travel and culture as I am, so I\u2019m sure that you\u2019ll want to hear about my experiences as I engage with the movers and shakers of the Italian tourism industry at the highest level.\u00a0 Now let\u2019s discuss some more travel blogging basics.<\/p>\n

Travel Blogging Basics: Technical considerations<\/h2>\n

First, let me make it clear that I\u2019m not a techie-guru. I don\u2019t know how to write code or custom design WordPress themes.\u00a0 I\u2019m learning as I go, but I\u2019m happy share with you my triumphs\u00a0and mistakes so that you might benefit from them.\u00a0 Second, there\u2019s just way too much to say on this subject in the space of one post, so I\u2019ll be limiting my advice to the very basics for now.\u00a0 I will try to expand more on this another time, maybe as a regular feature on my blog.\u00a0 Third, as I implied in my first post, all the elements of blogging (writing, technical, marketing) are deeply intertwined.\u00a0 I separate them only to make the explanations a bit more digestible. \u00a0Some of this technical stuff will overlap with writing and social media\/marketing.<\/p>\n

Pick a Domain Name\u2026and hope that it isn\u2019t already taken<\/h2>\n

OK, last time we defined your blog topic, found your voice, and identified a few interesting stories to tell.\u00a0 Now you have to decide on a domain name.\u00a0 So what will you go for, something straight forward that suggests your blog topic like tastingtuscanwines.com?\u00a0 Or something catchy\/kitschy, like vinodivinointrentino.com?\u00a0 (Vino divino in Trentino\u2026say that<\/em> ten times fast!)\u00a0 Of course, you could do what I\u2019ve done and just use your name, if it\u2019s available.\u00a0 There are advantages and disadvantages to all these choices, but just know that Google no longer rewards domain names for containing key words.\u00a0 In our case, having \u201cItaly, Tuscany, vino, ciao, bella\u201d in the domain are no longer given extra points in their search engine algorithms.\u00a0 In fact, for real people, all those similar sounding sites get confused with one another.\u00a0 For example, how\u2019s anyone supposed to remember the difference between vitabellatravel.com<\/a> and bellavitatravel.com?\u00a0 (I can\u2019t remember the difference, and I actually own one of those domains.)<\/p>\n

Anyway, spend some time thinking about it, because it\u2019s something that you\u2019ll have to live with for a long time if you establish a blog.\u00a0 But don\u2019t drive yourself crazy trying to come up with the perfect name.<\/p>\n

Even before you do that, you should probably decide if you want to use one of the free platforms such as Blogger.com or WordPress.org, or go for a self-hosted site.\u00a0 Conventional wisdom says that self-hosted is better, because you have much more control over the appearance and performance of your site.\u00a0 And you own it; you\u2019re not merely borrowing it.\u00a0 If you just want an online journal to share your travels with friends and family back home, then a free site is fine.\u00a0 On the other hand, if you\u2019re hoping to attract a bigger audience, spend a few bucks and buy a domain, and then self-host; it’s really not that expensive.<\/p>\n

To purchase a domain name, go to any of the reputable sites.\u00a0 I use GoDaddy, which is probably the most popular and trustworthy.\u00a0 Once you get on their site, you can search for free to see if the name you want is available.\u00a0 This might take a while, but it\u2019s kind of fun.\u00a0 If it is available, I suggest buying it right away (again, they\u2019re cheap) before someone else scoops it up.\u00a0 There are lots of people who buy domains simply for the purpose of reselling them at a higher price.<\/p>\n

Who will be hosting you?<\/h2>\n

For hosting, I\u2019ve been using SiteGround<\/a> for about a year now, after way too many problems with HostGator.\u00a0 There\u2019s a big company out there called Endurance International Group that owns HostGator, BlueHost, TypePad, and about 50 other brands, all of which are served by the same unreliable servers.\u00a0 Stay away from these guys\u2014they’ve let me (and many other dissatisfied customers) down too many times to count.\u00a0 SiteGround<\/a>, by contrast, has been great: fast, reliable, and very efficient (even proactive) with their tech support.<\/p>\n

Those are the easy steps.\u00a0 Now things get a little more complicated as far as the technology goes.\u00a0 But don\u2019t worry; there are tutorials to walk you through it.\u00a0 SiteGround provides these resources, including easy-to-follow videos:<\/p>\n

How to Create a WordPress Site<\/a><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s have a look at the “art” where writing and technology meet.<\/p>\n

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)<\/h2>\n

Once upon a time, long ago (six or seven years ago IS a long time on the World Wide Web), the searches engines were easily fooled.\u00a0 A person could load up their webpages and metadata with keywords, create hundreds of links to other sites, and just like that their blog found its way to the top of the page in a Google search.\u00a0 Not so anymore.\u00a0 Google et al are onto those tricks, and now there are only two ways to get on the front page: 1) pay for it with an advertisement, or; 2) provide awesome content that real people want to read and share.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll skip the discussion of paid ads for now, and focus on creating good stuff to read.\u00a0 This is where we could go back to the last post on writing<\/a> and highlight some of the points that I made regarding the engagement of your readers, and providing some sort of value for them, whether it be great information or entertainment.<\/p>\n

But now we will add another element, which is the spectral presence of Google lurking over your shoulder as you peck away at the keyboard.\u00a0 Yes, you should always write for real people, but you must also keep the search engines in mind.\u00a0 (It\u2019s Google\u2019s world, we\u2019re all just visiting it, my friends.)<\/p>\n

So as you sit down to write, think of a \u201ckeyword,\u201d which is the term that you want Google to associate with your blog post.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the thing: you can\u2019t just pick \u201cItaly,\u201d or \u201cTuscany.\u201d\u00a0 Those are much too broad you\u2019ll never crawl past the big sites like WikiTravel, Lonely Planet, and the like.\u00a0 Instead, you should choose a \u201clong tail keyword.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, a phrase of about three to five words that is specific to the topic you want to write about\u2014you have a much better chance of being found this way.<\/p>\n

Can you guess my long tail keyword for this post?<\/p>\n

(Answer: \u201ctravel blogging basics\u201d)<\/p>\n

Besides having your keyword appear 3-4 times throughout the text of your post, it\u2019s nice if it also appears in the title of the post, one of the headers, and in the meta description.\u00a0 You can also place it into the meta data your photos, as well. \u00a0All of these things makes your post more attractive to Google for the keyword you\u2019ve selected.<\/p>\n

To assist with this, there are plug-ins to add to your WordPress site.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a post I wrote a while back specifically to demonstrate how this works, and a screen shot from my SEO analytics.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Rick\u2019s Rome Blog:\u00a0https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/ricks-rome-blog\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"travel<\/a><\/p>\n

Photoediting<\/h2>\n

Uffa!\u00a0 This is an increasingly important aspect of blogging in our visual culture where most folks have the attention span of a goldfish.\u00a0 Sadly, this is my weakest point, as anyone who follows my blog regularly can attest to.\u00a0 I know how to do this stuff, but I\u2019m just too slow and therefore don\u2019t have the time–or the patience, or the desire.\u00a0 The painful truth is that I\u2019m missing out big time by not maximizing the potential of optical impact.\u00a0 Hell, I don\u2019t even have a Pinterest account, which is a huge sin for a blogger. \u00a0(Do as I say, not as I do, kids.)<\/p>\n

Still, if YOU should wish to master this skill, there are some good resources available at your disposal.\u00a0 I recently came across this helpful article:<\/p>\n

8 Visual Content Apps<\/a><\/p>\n

The topic of visual elements should be an entire separate discussion, so I\u2019ll leave for then.<\/p>\n

Wow, this post has gotten really long and I\u2019ve barely scratched the surface.\u00a0 But I\u2019m going to stop for the day, and next time we will pick up with my second big announcement<\/strong> and a discussion on integrating social media promoting with your blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back for part two of my series on travel blogging basics. (And when I say basics, I mean for absolute beginners.)\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t read part one yet, you can read it here. But before we get into that topic, I want to make my first big announcement concerning my own blog.\u00a0 I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169,285],"tags":[226,201,274,287,288],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}