How to Find Your Travel Blog’s Purpose

It’s a tough question. And like many tough questions, it goes unanswered. Or maybe answered vaguely, like “My blog is about my travels.”

Yikes.

Defining your blog’s purpose is the THE most important thing.

Without purpose, you’ll…

• Never know what to write about
• Fail to keep readers interested and/or focused
• Never really do this for a living

So how you define your purpose?

In marketing terms - which you’ll learn throughout this course - you’re looking for your blogs Unique Selling Proposition…

Let’s define the USP…

Your Unique Selling Proposition explains why you are different/better than the competition. It explains in clear terms the exact benefit your readers will get from your blog, and why your are the best source for this information.

Ideally, your USP is only one sentence long. Any longer and you risk confusing your reader.

Here are some classic examples:

“You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less — or it’s free.” Domino’s Pizza

That’s a killer USP. It highlights specific benefits (“fresh,” “hot”, “delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free”) instead of meaningless statements like “best” or “greatest.”

Another example is…

“When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight.” Fedex

Here the USP is simple: your package WILL arrive tomorrow. For businesses around the world, this was reason enough to work with FedEx.

For Trekity, our USP is…

“Find, Plan and Share Your Next Adventure.” Trekity.com

It promises three specific benefits to the site.  It doesn’t say “We’re the best travel site” or “Killer Travel Tips”… it provides three specific actions our readers can take.

How to find your USP?

Travel bloggers play in a very crowded area… especially if you cover the world.

By having a strong USP, you stand out from all the noise.

For example, here are the USPs for existing travel blogs:

• Travelfish: “Original Asia travel intelligence you can trust.”
• Travelllll: “International travel news and trends in digital travel journalism.”
• Vagabondish: “Dubious tips & essential ephemera for today’s curious traveler”

Notice how specific they are?

Even Vagabondish’s - which is admittedly less specific - manages to address a certain type of reader with its language. “Dubious” and “Ephemera” are two words not usually associated with travel blogs… which make it stand out.

When drafting your USP, include the following:

1. A specific benefit for your readers

2. Who your readers are

Here are a few examples:

• Daily tips on cycling in Europe for professional cyclists
• Bar reviews around the world for thirsty travelers
• Mexico travel advice for scuba divers
• Africa on a shoestring
• Adventure travel for adrenalin junkies

See how each provides a specific benefit for a specific audience? This helps focus your writing, build your authority in the niche and build a community of like-minded people dying to read your every word.

What You Need to Do Next

Look at the examples on this page. Think hard about what you want your blog to be about, then write down your ideas. Look for websites that cover this specific angle (if there are any) and figure out a way to stand out.

Now get to work 😉

To your successful travel blog,
Adam Costa

Editor in Chief, Travel Blogger Academy

P.S. This is part of a 24 part course on travel blogging. If you haven’t already, sign up for it by entering your email at the top of this page!