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Writing © by tonyhall
“How do I get paid for my travel writing?”
It’s a common question here at TBA.
And fortunately, we’ve got an expert lined up to answer all your questions.
In this MASSIVE guest post, Leyla Giray from Women-on-the-Road.com reveals how she became a successful travel writer… and how you can, too!
She originally released this as an eBook but was kind enough to share this info with Academy members (so be sure to thank her in the comments!)
For many, travel blogging is a hobby.
They share travel stories with friends and family and making money from it never really crossed their mind.
This message is not for them.
Other travel bloggers, however, do make a full time income from their blog and let me tell you…
They look at things differently. More importantly, they measure things differently.
Don’t worry - you don’t need to get this joke to enjoy this post. Promise.
You’re not gonna believe this…
After interviewing ten top travel bloggers I discovered something incredible.
I discovered that - on average - each blogger gets between 50 - 70% of their total traffic from the search engines.
Which - as someone with years of SEO experience - was encouraging.
But what if you don’t know much about SEO?
What if you just want a simple blueprint to help
improve your rankings…
…without fighting through countless SEO books, blogs and forums to find the answers?
Fear not, because…
I’m not a stalker.
Really.
Sure, I follow people without their knowing it (on Twitter, anyways)…
But you know what?
I’m tired of it. Tired of waiting… and watching… and wishing I was one of those successful travel bloggers.
So I did something about it. I stopped stalking - and started talking.
I asked ten popular travel bloggers to spill their secrets on how they transformed their love for travel into a popular blog.
Best part? They did.
[Read more…]
I’m very excited about today’s lesson.
It outlines a simple process for growing your readership, increasing page views and, yes, making more money… without lifting a finger.
I know… that sounds spammy, sleazy and too good to be true.
But it’s none of those things… if you do it right.
You will need a few things for this lesson. After you read it, set aside an hour to do your assignment. I guarantee you it will be the most valuable hour you ever spent on your blog.
In fact, I’ll bet you never look at your blog the same way again.
Let’s get started…
Ernest Hemingway - a notoriously fearsome writer and traveler - once said:
“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”
Indeed.
But I’d like to take this a step further…
Imagine - as you write your next post - there is a gun to your head. And your life depends on keeping that person happy.
That person, of course, is your reader. And you better keep their attention.
But how?
It isn’t a lack of brains, talent or money.
That would mean only the brilliant, rich and exceedingly talented could ever succeed.
But you know that’s not true, right?
After all, there are plenty of idiots and wild mountain jack-asses with money (just turn on MTV and you’ll see what I mean).
So what is it? What separates the successful from everyone else?
It’s not what they have… it’s what they don’t let get in the way.
Distraction.
Distraction from doing what really matters: writing great content, building relationships and creating profitable products.
Distraction really is a killer. It’s also makes you feel like a failure.
Ah, WordPress plugins…
… at first they seem like the answer to all life’s problems.
Update files? There’s a plugin…
Block spam? There’s a plugin…
SEO? Yep, there’s a plugin for that, too.
But as any seasoned blogger knows: plugins slow down your website. They can break the next time WordPress updates… or worse, leave open holes for malicious hackers to exploit.
For these reasons, use as few plugins as necessary.
Sure, you’ll require additional plugins depending on your travel blog. But the following are ones I recommend everyone install:
I must warn you: this is a long post.
But you deserve the full story and - if you’re willing to walk through this - you’ll discover exactly what my wife and I did to launch Trekity.com, our new travel blog.
More importantly, you’ll discover the exact traffic strategies we used to get 8,370 pageviews the first week.
Ready to get started?
90% of companies say they’ve been hacked in the past 12 months (Source: Ponemon Research, 2011).
Almost 60% have been hacked twice. And more than half doubt they can stop it from happening again.
These aren’t bloggers… they’re multi-million dollar companies with enterprise level security.
They’re not a one-man operation - some employ over 75,000 people - and despite their best efforts, hackers tear through security holes each and every day.
What’s to stop them from taking down your site? WordPress? Unfortunately, WordPress is notorious for security issues (out of the box, at least) which makes them WIDE open for anti-social cyber-weasels to chew through.
Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself.
