Know your audience. If you鈥檙e blogging to keep your mom updated on your whereabouts, then it鈥檚 fine to include everything you ate and when you last showered, but if you鈥檙e trying to appeal to a broader audience, you鈥檙e going to have to focus on more interesting experiences. Show them something they haven鈥檛 seen before.
Get 鈥榚m in quick and make 鈥榚m care. In travel narrative, it鈥檚 easy to start at the beginning and go from there, but sometimes the beginning is boring. Like any kind of writing, blogs benefit from a strong headline and a grabby lead. Put the juicy stuff first and pull people in right away.
Have a voice. There鈥檚 nothing more boring that a play-by-play of someone else鈥檚 vacation. Don鈥檛 just rehash. Have an opinion; give up some dirt. Dig in to more than just the 鈥渟o there I was…鈥
But don鈥檛 ignore other people鈥檚 voices. You travel to see new places and meet new people, right? Bring them in and tell their stories. Make it about the things your see and the people you meet, not about you.
Avoid clich茅s. Is the view from your balcony in Hawaii “postcard perfect?” Then maybe you should send a postcard instead of blogging. When you鈥檙e in new, beautiful places it鈥檚 easy to slip into overused language. Don鈥檛 do that. Give your readers something new, and show it to them in a different way
Be a photo editor. You took a million pictures and Instagrammed the heck out of them. Awesome, but now cut them down. Images are important, but three good photos are much stronger than 27 mediocre ones.
Have a point. There are a zillion travel blogs out there, so why should people care about you? What鈥檚 your deal? Are you eating your way across Arkansas? Are you the first person to circumnavigate Iceland by Streetstrider? Are you so hilarious that they can鈥檛 ignore you? Find a niche and give people a reason to read your writing.
Keep it up. 鈥淗ey, guys, sorry it鈥檚 been so long since I鈥檝e written, I鈥檝e been traveling鈥︹ is not the way to suck people in. Be consistent and update frequently. Like, every day. We know you鈥檙e on the road, that鈥檚 why we care, no excuses.