Oft quoted, Gary Arndt trumpeted TBEX 2012 as “probably the best conference I’ve ever attended…. In terms of a straight return on investment, it was easily the most productive conference I’ve ever attended. It was also one of the most fun.” Mighty high and well-earned praise.
A Chink in the Armour
Declared with no less aplomb, however, was earnest disquiet about the lack of attention to, among other things, quality content creation.
In a comment following Arndt’s enthusiastic report, Spud Hilton, Travel Editor at the San Francisco Chronicle and blogger at Bad Latitude on SFGate, was forthright in his concern about “what appeared to be making content creation (specifically, writing) an ugly red-headed stepchild at a conference that touted itself as being where ‘travel writers’ connect.” Hilton led a breakout session called 10 Steps to Writing that Better Engages (and Keeps) Your Readers, the only one at TBEX to focus on gooder righting. (He has since been reassured that “going forward, content creation (again, including writing) will play a larger role in the professional development.”)
Hilton’s reservations continued to resonate elsewhere, though. “We need bloggers with large online presence, reach and influence. But we also need them to be good writers too. If bloggers want to take their rightful place in the marketing mix they need to upgrade the professionalism of their output,” wrote Matthew Barker in a piece also published on tnooz that triggered a firestorm of comments, some of them furiously ego-driven.
At the heart of the debate is how, as Bruce Rosard, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at PhoCusWright, commented, “bloggers need to think and act like the professionals or they won’t be relevant. If you are a relevant journalist, photographer, videographer, you’re relevant to the marketplace, and you’ll be treated as such.”
For Travelllll.com, I’ve already waded into this wrangle with my assertion that you should be a travel writer, not a travel blogger. Now I would like to get a bit more practical and, borrowing copiously from the tips and hints that came tumbling out of the TBEX-tonicked Rockies, serve up a trio of broad considerations for your review. Each offers advice about how to step up your game and become a better writer… and more influential blogger.
Quality over Quantity
Care with fewer and better words, and attention to a comprehensive but eclectic base of social-media influencers are better for everyone than a burgeoning of bunk and the excessive tweeting of twaddle. Alas, care and attention seem to be losing ground to bunk and excess.
Like a growing group of outspoken others baffled by any defence of slack craft, I find much wanting of travel bloggers. Far too often their output is amateurish and undisciplined, a pipeline powered by low pay rates, low expectations and slavish attention to social standing.
That being said, there is arguably a broad consensus that sloppiness truly is undesirable. So I’m going to bank on the notion that the vast majority of bloggers really would like to write well, and that quality is something worth striving for, especially if it results in a passionate and influential following of both readers and industry professionals.
In pursuit of those goals, I think there are two key areas in which quality must begin to outweigh quantity: writing and social media.
On writing, if you haven’t already read any of the world’s leading writing guides, start right now with The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White, a simple, slim, but seminal and utterly indispensable English style manual. Other highly recommended readings include Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott and On Writing Well by William Zinsser (thanks to Spud Hilton for this one). Another cantankerous but superb essay is ‘Politics and the English Language‘ by the one and only George Orwell.
Thorough review of these resources would help raise the writing bar, but also put to rest any broad disagreements about how to be a judge of good writing (the difference between good and bad is usually pretty obvious) and whether it is even a contributing factor in the success (or failure) of a blog or its writer.
In social media, more and more knowledgeable marketing and PR professionals now recognise that vast numbers of social-media followers don’t automatically translate into meaningful return on investment. Some go so far as to say that quantity is no measure of social media punch. Everyone’s more interested in meaningful engagement. But what constitutes quality if sheer volume can’t be expected to carry the day? Unfortunately, no one seems to know conclusively.
There are, however, analytical tools that can help you understand who your followers are and how best to position yourself with them. For Twitter, services like TweetReach and Edelman’s TweetLevel will help you get a sense of what’s what. You can then work to optimise your outreach with a SocialBro account, which will analyse when your followers are online and active. Use it in conjunction with Buffer App, a simple tool that pushes out tweets at predefined times. Don’t forget to structure your tweet the right way.
Of course, on Facebook, page insights provide reasonable data. Serious bloggers should parse this for a better understanding of their demographic.
Meaning over Mass Appeal
You’ve heard this many times: Choose novelty over pulp, exhibit expertise over expediency. Sadly, in pursuit of broad distribution, most of us are guilty of giving in to popular demand, especially in the form of top-five or top-10 lists. Many of us have also succumbed (or been pressured to adapt) to the kind of formulaic written pabulum that robs travel (or any) writing of its soul. I used to think that the travel sections of major metropolitan-area newspapers were the worst offenders (and they’re still often excruciating), but now blogs have definitely pulled rank. Worse yet, bloggers are not under the thumb of antiquated style guides, reined-in editors or systemic atrophy; instead they choose what they want to to produce, but are not making wise choices.
As I argued in Why Aren’t More Bloggers Writing About Responsible Travel, bloggers should be in the vanguard when it comes to content creation: “Why aren’t more of you – buttressed by blogging skills and vocal in your frustrated desire to be recognised for your craft – helping to drive the kind of change that positions you as leaders? More nimble, more imaginative, more bold and less reliant on traditional revenue sources, you have little stopping you.”
And yet, it appears that you do. For a whole bunch of reasons. Many of these reasons were addressed at TBEX (and other conferences), so it’s high time to do some analysis – of yourself, your blog and your audience. Invest some real time in it, if not also some money.
For insight into the kind of impact you make, set yourself up on Klout (we’ve got a glimpse of it here) or Kred (see what we wrote here) for a debatably relevant look at your influence. Klout and Kred are free and entertaining, if nothing else.
To study the kind of audience your blog has, wade into the thickets of date available for free on Alexa and/or Quantcast. Don’t just look at results for your own blog or site. See how your published material compares with that of other blogs, especially those that are most similar to yours.
Once you’ve completed your analysis, set your creative juices agurgle and think about your own voice, its relevance to the market and reader engagement. Identify what makes you and your blog distinct, when and how you were most successful reaching out to readers, and then assemble proof of your authority. Of course, think beyond blogging to the multiple platforms on which you can showcase your work and your personality. The result, combined with quality output, just might help you get where you want to go.
Real People over Robots
Lastly, it’s been said a lot, but I don’t think it’s sinking in: Writing for SEO is not good writing. Actually, it’s downright bad writing. So write for human readers. If you use WordPress and haven’t already installed an SEO plugin, then something like Yoast or All in One SEO Pack will help you tweak what you’ve done to suit your SEO overlords. But the foundation should be optimised for eyes not Web crawlers.
Feature Image: Bigstock/Gunnar3000
Woman writer: Bigstock/Olly2
Post Revisions:
- 1 August, 2012 @ 11:05 [Current Revision] by Ethan Gelber
- 3 July, 2012 @ 19:19 by John O'Nolan
- 3 July, 2012 @ 11:00 by Ethan Gelber
- 3 July, 2012 @ 10:55 by Alastair McKenzie
- 3 July, 2012 @ 10:51 by Alastair McKenzie
- 3 July, 2012 @ 10:51 by Alastair McKenzie
- 3 July, 2012 @ 10:38 by Alastair McKenzie
FANTASTIC article! Very inspiring and such an important message; how travel writers have a voice that can lead the way to more responsible travel. More of these voices means more positive impact on travel worldwide. Thank you for the reminder & inspiration!
Thanks for the thumbs up, Joie. I do believe that travel bloggers could take over the responsible-travel charge, but more importantly, travel bloggers could lead *any* charge if they set their minds to it. They need to look for the voids and vacuums and step up, show that they are nimble thinkers, skilled writers and not just more of the same. We’ve got too much of the latter.
Super interesting article – as a blogger and a print writer, I find myself in the middle. While many on the pro-blogger side consider blogs more fresh, more youthful – at least in spirit – and more spontaneous, often I go to read them and it’s the same old same old, I-love-everything-isn’t-this-all-fantastic approach. That said, there are many bloggers that have true writing talent – I think nomadicchick.com is thoughtful and literary, for example. Bottom line – entertain me, enlighten me or make me laugh, and take a novel approach.
Couldn’t agree more, Carol. There are *many* superb travel blog writers. They’re proof (to me) that even more excellent wordsmiths are out there. That’s why this battle is worth fighting: the cream isn’t necessarily rising to the top because the business models seem to favor a bit too much, well, bottom-feeding. Identifying quality (amidst so much quantity) is proving difficult – for PR and marketing professionals, and for readers. But change is a-comin’…
It’s amazing how many people think that they are interesting just because they are writing about being somewhere new.
Having structure is important to sharing an experience. If you’re only writing what happened with no context, deeper point, or replicable experiences, you’re the navel-gazing stereotype that is scoffed at by “real writers”.
Roni, I do like *some* of the wow-first-time writing out there. It’s charming and, when well written, very insightful. But the operative phrase there is ‘when well written.’ As art, when it stands on its own, it can then also serve a purpose: helping hesitant would-be travelers to overcome their fears and log their own first-time wows. Alas, most of it is well written enough to earn its purpose stripes.
Important qualification: There’s a HUGE number of travel blogs out there penned by people who have no pro-blogger aspirations. While I still believe that they should strive to be the best writers they can, they should not stifle the passion that drives their desire to record their trip and share it with friends and family. What I’m writing about is people who want to take their passion to a new level.
Fingers moving too fast. End of the first paragraph should read: “Alas, most of it is NOT well written enough to earn its purpose stripes.”
And I agree. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone just doing a blog for one trip for family/friends.
I just don’t get the people that think that just because they have some comments that that means they’re good.
Great piece Ethan. It raises points that I’ve also observed about the travel blogging “industry” and mentions some of the guiding principles for travel writing that I believe in. The very first piece of advice I got from a travel editor was the best: “Write like a writer, not like a travel writer” – that is to say, avoid the boring cliche trappings that the industry has grown accustomed to. The writing should be of the same literary quality and integrity as, say, fiction or journalism. He also went on to mention that 90% of the stories that get submitted are (I’m paraphrasing in more polite terms than he used) cliched rubbish. It is certainly not easy eking out a living as a travel writer, but there is a real opportunity to be original and creative. And as you said in your previous comment, to strive to be best writers they can.
Thanks for your thoughts, Cindy. I imagine that people want to be the best they can in *any* industry. Being able to take pride in what you choose to do should be is important. But in this global economic climate of both opportunity and desperation, I feel like people take too many shortcuts, forget that, except for the lucky few for whom specific things just come naturally, accomplishment involves a ridiculous amount of hard work. In everything, I’d like to see more hard work, more original thought and more leadership. At the moment, in travel writing, I don’t. (By the way, I’ve worked as a travel editor a half dozen times and fielded a lot of pitches and drafts and I must agree with your friend: at least 90% is crap, even from established — and sometimes big — names.)
Wow, great article! I plan to use this as a roadmap to improve my site; I know there are some aspects I need to work on, but didn’t really know where to begin. Thanks also for listing all these resources, it’s really helpful!
So glad you liked it, Bianca. Good luck!
I very much agree that writing skill is important. OK, no surprise there, I’m always waving a flag for the writing side – but quality writing and storytelling is a key skill towards getting readers, better partnerships and more money. Like every other travel blogging skill out there it’s dead in the water if it’s not in balance with everything else – but it’s not a nice thing to have, it’s a *vital* thing to have, and the more you have of it, the better you’re going to do.
It’s also good business. Writing and storytelling are business skills, not just matters of creative expression or Art or anything that can be dispensed with if you want to play in the big leagues. Writing sells. Stories sell. (See: advertising and marketing, history of). The more distinct your voice, the better you express yourself and the better you can tell your own “compelling story”, the money you are going to be able to make if you’re also doing the rest of your job right.
One nitpick, though: I think it’s possible to write for SEO and still make quality content. I don’t see the two as opposed, not really – especially after the Panda update which has elements in place that favour popular content. SEO doesn’t generally equate to “bad content” – or rather, it shouldn’t. :)
Hi Mike. For me, that writers should be able write well is, well, the most vital thing there is. As confessed to in comments on other articles, I don’t mean to give short shrift to any of the other essential business skilled required in blogging, but there’s really no point constructing a beautiful building if it doesn’t have a good foundation. A blog’s base elements are words and images. If you can’t meet minimum standards (or, better yet, excel) in one or both, readers will figure you out.
Fair enough on the picked nit. You’re right. But, then again, a good writer can do anything with words, especially squeeze them into ill-fitting molds. SEO certainly shouldn’t necessarily mean bad content, but it almost always does because there aren’t enough writers writing to (or caring to write to) SEO specifications. Which is as it should be… and I think the latest algorithm updates are proof that optimization should follow art, not the other way around.
Great point & good article Ethan. We’ve been trying to raise the importance of quality (in our case this means up to date tips by locals in European cities) content for years. I did at TBEX Copenhagen, and wish I had been in Colorado to point this out again!
Thanks for the thought, Bart. The greater the number of people who remain vigilant on this front, the better off we all will be!
Excellent post. A few thoughts, none of which assume that most travel writers and bloggers are not doing the following and which are primarily aimed at emerging writers and bloggers (whatever their age), many of whom are already wonderful writers.
+ Read, read, read: In addition to reading books about writing — the ones recommended above are part of many college and MFA courses — travel writers and bloggers should read travel narratives and essays and literature and literary nonfiction so they have something on which to model their writing. The Best American Travel Writing is a trove. (Don’t forget the Honorable Mentions for further inspiration.) Magazines like Smithsonian, Outside, the Atlantic, among others, publish quality narratives. Quality reading breeds quality writing.
+ Slow down, take one: Write posts ahead of time, then re-read and revise them before publishing. In other words, sleep on it.
+ Slow down, take two: If you only type your content, write a few posts out longhand and compare your longhand compositions to your typed ones in terms of sentence length, word choice, structure. If your longhand writing seems better than your typed writing, analyze the differences and try to apply what you did longhand to your typed writing. (If not, carry on!)
+ Beware the chronology crutch: Many travelogues, even those that unfold in blog posts, rely too directly on chronology, without enough story or detail to pad timeline. Contemplate ways around that. They can be thematic (an idea articulated by the narrator, even third person), dramatic (tension with your traveling partner, conflicted feelings about a place, with place becoming a character).
As for SEO, I’d like to think the worst is over now that word density requirements, at least as I understand them, are much lower than they were even a year to 18 months ago, but I still struggle with post titles and I have yet to find a resource on the craft of SEO writing or a SEO consultant who can explain themselves and their rationales clearly. I don’t bother to think about keywords when I blog. (I am not on WordPress.) I only apply them when I am writing for a client who’s asked me to do so. Full disclosure: I own the domain name ScrewSEO.com.
Thanks, Barbara, for the excellent ideas and advice. I am a particular advocate for slowing down, rereading and rewriting. There is so much to be gained from breathing between words and then pausing between ‘###’ and publish.
I discovered long ago that I create a much better first draft longhand, but finish with a much better final draft when I type. When I can I combine the two, which always allows for that human pace of production (slow down, take one).
Yes, the SEO lords may no longer be as exacting as they used to be, but far too many of the blogging vassals haven’t yet adapted to that lighter touch.
I love the full disclosure and hope you get around to using that URL one day.
I mix up writing longhand and typing. I love to brainstorm longhand. I also try and write and produce a post the day before it’s going to run, then revise it the next morning before I publish. Though I only end up doing that about one-third of the time.
Since his name came up in your column, I wanted to share William Zissner’s recent column in the American Scholar about being cast in Woody Allen’s film “Stardust Memories.” Here it is: http://theamericanscholar.org/my-stardust-memories/
The thing about that URL is the game keeps changing! It would be fun.
I noticed a typo. Should read “an” SEO consultant. TIA.
This was an excellent post, thank you for the great read!
It wa interesting for me to read about TBEX (I was not in attendance) and how writing seems to have been given short shrift. This same debate arose after Blissdom Canada (female audience, with large majority parent or livestyle bloggers) when I attended and the one seminar that did focus on “improving your craft” was not well attended. I suppose it is an issue plaguing bloggers of all stripes — are we writers or are we traffic-chasers?
Interesting parallels. And a rhetorical question at the end? I wish there were more of the former (who confess to an awareness of the latter), rather than the latter who give a glance at what’s required of the former.
Hi Julie, I was at that session at TBEX and I agree that turnout was disappointing. I thought that a love for good writing would be something common to everyone there. I took away some helpful messages from the session — in addition to the resource books about writing that were cited, it made me think more about
a) the importance of having a second pair of (qualified) eyeballs review a post before publishing, and
b) the importance of fact checking that goes beyond wikipedia
Thanks for this, Cynthia. While I often lament the secondary status of good writing (crushed into place by the marketing-and-SEO behemoth), I am buoyed by people’s professed love of good writing. If only that love were universally put into practice. Cue violins.
I think this topic is one of the reasons why I’m just not that drawn to TBEX anymore. I personally don’t like to read blog posts that are clearly written with SEO in mind and cluttered with sponsored posts. I think this is where bloggers and writers differ. In my opinion, travel writing is about capturing a place, a person, a story. Travel blogging, on the other hand, has become such a business that people seem to be more concerned with how they can monetize their content and make things viral in the digital world that they forget to actually capture the essence of what they’re experiencing. I applaud Spud Hilton on his concerns and comments. I definitely think he has a relevant point.
Hi JoAnna, the networking punch of something like TBEX is still seriously worth considering. TBEX is also a way to see what’s trending, even if you believe that those trends are going to be short-lived or red herrings. If you know where not to go (because that’s where everyone else is) then you may find yourself suddenly in demand when the interest swings to where you are.
I agree with you about what travel writing should be. But I also agree with the pro bloggers that travel blogging needs to be treated like a business. What I’m trying to find (or help build) is the overlap. Right now a see a gaping divide.
By the way, there’s more about this in another piece just published on Travelllll.com at Why You Need to Have a Killer Travel Blog Marketing Strategy. Now. ( http://travelllll.com/2012/07/17/travel-blog-marketing-strategy/ ).
Hear, hear! A well-written, thoughtful piece, Ethan. When blog writing, we travel writers are too often guilty of sacrificing good writing for speed of writing (i.e. must post 3 pieces this week). But fast, quality writing is a skill that can be learned, one that I’m working on myself . . .
Thanks for your thoughts, Nancy. Good and fast writing is absolutely a skill worth developing. But I still prefer good and slow (or at least careful and accurate) writing over fast and sloppy. It is very likely that the only person counting how many posts you publish a week is… you.
Great piece Ethan and agree that TBEX was waaayyy worth it.
Its good to survey your audience as well to see what they want and what’s bugging them. Then you can write posts they want to read.
SEO is good, so its good to have an idea of what people will use to search for a particular topic. For me, I write my post with the content that I want to deliver and you know what, its found by SEO. Both my two main sites gets most of its traffic from Google natural searches.
You can write your posts and then using All in One SEO Pack, add the search terms you’ve researched using whatever tool you desire. Just make the content good and relevant and the rest will come.
I’ve just started a new site and am using the same model, write good content, add search terms to the SEO Pack so people can find it. Also have eye catching headlines as well.
Sometimes you get lucky too and are included in others’ newsletters, but that’s rare :-).
Really interesting piece and definitely agree with Kerwin that with a little optimisation in the right place, people will find the content through natural search. Not only is it important to add your ‘search terms’ to the post title and description but also use them within carefully written subheadings. We would always recommend the use of subheadings wherevever possible as they help to communicate key points quickly to visitors.
On our travel blog, we are constantly trying to up our game with the content that we produce and have recently begun a series featuring interviews with professional travel bloggers. The objective here is to show case individuals who are travelling and writing constantly on thier own blogs, helping to inspire anyone interested in doing likewise.
Same old spammy SEO tactics eh Peter? Some things never change. I stripped the link. Please don’t do it again.