If you’re considering a backpacking trip around the world, you should be writing a travel blog. One thing to remember is you won’t be alone. The travel blogosphere is vast and growing daily.
There are heaps of reasons why you – and literally hundreds of other people – write travel blogs.
You meet fantastic people who share your interests, you have a chance to document your travels, and hopefully you will inspire other people to escape their comfort zone and explore the unknown.
If you’re writing a travel blog, chances are you want people to read it. You have something to say, photos to share, and advice to give. What if you’re not getting as much traffic as you’d hope for?
What if no one seems to be reading, retweeting, or commenting on your blog posts?
One of the most rewarding aspects of writing a blog is knowing there are people listening to you. Remember, your blog won’t become successful over night – yet you should undoubtedly be aiming for success.
So, grab a coffee, a beer, or a cup of tea and think about these
7 Reasons Why Your Travel Blog Doesn’t Get as Much Traffic as You Want:
1) You Post Too Often
More and more people are becoming interested in travel blogs. That’s exciting. Be they cubicle dwelling virtual travelers, career breakers planning a trip, or other travelers on the road, the number of people that follow travel blogs is growing. Rapidly.
So is the number of travelers writing a travel blog. The market is quite simply flooded with blog posts.
If you’re posting four or five times each week, your readers – who are inevitably following other travel blogs – simply won’t be able to keep up with the travel photos, travel advice, or stories you have to share.
2) Your Posts Are Too Long
Writing a travel blog isn’t easy. You’re forced to balance traveling, with planning, with meeting other travelers, along with everything that goes into actually running a travel blog. You have to come up with ideas for posts, format them, answer emails from your followers, and deal with advertisers.
So don’t make it any harder than it has to be.
As your readers are busy, don’t make them read small novels – anything over 1,000 words is too long. Keep your blog posts short and sweet and more people will take the time to read them.
3) Where Are the Photos?
Blog readers are visually influenced. Regardless of what you’re writing about, you should be including photos. Lots of them.
Photos add life to your blog and make your posts easier to read.
Creative Commons offers up heaps of fantastic photos you’re free to use – just be sure to give credit when credit is due.
4) You Only Talk About Yourself
By the very nature of being a traveler, you’re bound to have stories to tell. That’s fantastic – but there is a time and a place. Believe it or not, your travel blog often isn’t the place.
You got really drunk last weekend? Fantastic. You went on a great tour with a funny guide? Sweet as.
Your audience doesn’t need to know, and doesn’t want to know, what you’re doing each day you’re on the road. Keep your posts appealing to a wide range of people and your traffic numbers will inevitably increase.
5) You Don’t Read Other Travel Blogs
The travel blog community is fantastic – it’s filled with open, helpful, and genuine travelers who share your same passions. One of the best ways to gain traffic and traction in the travel blogosphere is by reading, commenting, and promoting other blog posts.
The faces behind the blogs you visit regularly will slowly make their way to your blog – and by leaving compelling comments, you’re bound to pick up traffic from other commenters as well.
6) You Don’t Use Enough Lists
One of the most important things to consider when writing a blog post is the title. This is what determines whether or whether not someone will potentially even click through to read your post.
Your post titles should be both compelling and list focused.
- 7 of Australia’s Most Spectacular Views received 100 retweets in less than a week
- 7 Reasons You Should Experience Backpacking in Thailand has received 75 retweets
- 20 of New Zealand’s Best Views has received 108 retweets
- 7 Tips for Successful Long Term Travel has received 121 retweets
Your posts will gain far more traction and traffic if you consider what sells well in the social media community.
7) You Haven’t Waited Long Enough
Your travel blog won’t become successful overnight. It’s as simple as that.
Even if you’re doing everything right – and have been for months – you still may not be getting as much traffic as you want. Keep at it.
While many travel blogs pop up each day, an equal number fizzle out. Stay focused and continue to offer compelling, new, and photo-rich content and the traffic and interaction on your blog will steadily increase.
What’s your take? Leave your feedback or traffic generating tips in the comments section below.
Backpacking Matt 
A timeless post Matt. Thanks for sharing…. I have a long way to go
Cheers Zaid – timeless indeed, good luck on your journey blogging.
You always get told to post regularly… but I think you had a point with not posting too much! I’d better slow it down haha! Thanks for the tips!
What a great post, Matt! I loved some of your tips and will try to implement them all. I must admit I’m guilty of not listening to #7 – I think in this day and age, people are really used to getting what they want super fast… Especially those of us who are 20 haha. But I will keep trying and hoping – nothing wrong with that 😉
Thanks Sabina – good luck!
Love the “Your posts are too long” and “You only talk about yourself” points. I find that it’s hard to balance writing with your own voice and choosing a perspective that’s not too subjective. Really wicked post Matt, thanks!
Hi David — glad it resonated with you. Happy blogging!
Great tips Matt and thank you for sharing! I would also recommend writing down what you want your travel blog to focus on and what you want to include to not lose focus and blur what you want visitors to see what your blog is about. For example in my blog I said I only wanted to have posts about places I had been and things I had done, not just anything I could find online relating to travel.
Thanks for the advice Matt. My husband and I have been trying to grow our blog over the last few months. We know there’s a little more tweaking that needs to be done, but it’s good to know that we shouldn’t lose faith and continue at it!
Glad you found it useful – good luck in your blogging adventure!
My problem is that I don’t post often enough! I have a 7-month-old baby so besides our ‘babymoon’ last summer to Iceland, I haven’t done a ton of exciting, international travel. My wee one and I have been all over Alberta, where we live, but that’s about as far as we can go at the moment. However, I refuse to write filler material. Lots of blogs do it, and get away with it just fine. I have to remind myself to stay true to the theme of my blog, and not write just to have something to post to Twitter.
So, long story short, another recommendation I have for this list is to stop writing posts just for the sake of having a post. Many bloggers feel this intense need to post each week or every day, and so a lot of their articles come across as obvious fillers. Quality – not quantity! It’s okay to take a little break now and then! 🙂
Hi Matt!
A good read, and good advice. Good enough that I’ve decided to act on it now and comment on this in the hope that you, or any of your 1000s of readers take a look at my fledgling travel blog at http://www.travellivedream.com and offer any words of wisdom. Anyway, hope you’re enjoying NZ!
Thanks,
Tom
Thank you for the advice Matt! Usually I forget to take photos while traveling, because “I keep pictures in my head” so no. 3 (among other points as well) is what I really suck at.
Love this post, thanks for keeping my inspiration up, Matt!
Thanks so much!! We just launched our travel blog and hope to be as popular as yours soon. Much appreciated if you can visit our blog and leave comment on what we need to improve. Thanks again!!
Thanks Meck, good luck!
Lists are a good idea. I much prefer writing longer narratives, but the time invested in writing (and reading) them is so much greater. But especially if you have skim-readers who want their information quickly, nothing beats a list.
Such an inspiring post, Matt. To keep believing and having patience is the hardest part right now, but you’re absolutely right – we just gotta keep at it and then it will come in due time. Thank you!
Any idea how long it takes for a new site to get indexed? Keep up the great work!
Shouldn’t be more than a couple of week!
Good post, interesting read. Thanks
Oooops. I just started my blog and thought having stories in my posts would be a great idea. Good thing I found this post early on. Thanks for the tips!
Great post, Matt. Even if you know those things, it’s always good to re-read and remind the details, and then just go back to the blogging, and work your ass off, because hard work always pays off. Keep up the good work!
Great post Matt! I am incredibly impressed with your blog and really appreciate all your advice for your fellow bloggers. I have been blogging for a little over two years now, but am quick to admit that I have been doing quite a bit wrong (6 of 7 on your list). My blog began as a way to keep my family informed during a summer stay at the Grand Canyon, but has continued with some of my other travels. I never really considered making anything more of it until coming across people like you and Nomadic Matt. You guys are amazing! Hopefully by the time I head to Europe this summer I will have a better idea of what I am doing. Thanks again for all your help.
Far out, can’t believe how old this post is! Super glad you enjoyed. Good luck on your blogging journey.
Gosh! such an eye-opener (and part-reality slap!) Thanks heaps for this!
(tip no.5 put to good use, tehee!)
Thank you for all the advises! Very good post Matt!
Great post. Thank you for the tips 🙂
Lists are all the things I hate about click-bait travel blogs. They are so dull. A lovely travel monologue by a truly talented writer is all I want these days. But I guess that’s why we have NatGeo…
Great advice! Finally overcoming the fear and starting a travel blog up. It’s so hard to stay motivated when you think content is going nowhere. Thanks for inspiring us to keep going!
good points raised here. Im new to travel blogging and so am trying to find my way to get better viewings. This is going to help a lot thank you
Cheers for the post Matt, informative, short and helpful!
Thanks!
Great information, very helpful thank you!
I’ve just started up, and notice I do sometimes write very long entries. Even before reading your post, I already suspected that it could scare certain readers away, so I’m now consciously trying to write substantially shorter entries. Thanks for sharing your tips!
My pleasure!
Great post! I recently started a travel blog and am constantly doubting myself. Will definitely take on board your tips!
Thanks!
Thanks for the great advice Matt. We are just getting started and all the tips help. Do you have some advice for networking?
Happy blogging!
Thanks for the comment and compliments Kevin – good luck on your blogging journey!
Thank you for a great post. Really good advice!
I’ve always thought that I can’t write lists on for example “5 things you must see when visiting Sweden” as I haven’t seen EVERYTHING in Sweden, so how can I make sure that I really pick out the 5 greatest things?? Am I the only one thinking like this? Is this something I should just ignore and write lists based on what I have seen and done? What are your thoughts when you are writing lists? Do you feel comfortable writing lists?
Thankful for any feedback I can get, as I do think you are right – lists are popular! (I read them myself!)
Some great tips, especially with regards to the length of the posts… It’s difficult to shorten them as we can’t or don’t want to post so frequently… our posts average in the 2000 word range, cutting it shorter leaves too much out. Perhaps we should start splitting them into separate blog entries instead…Tough call all around really.
Great read Matt. I’m relatively new to travel blogging in a small niche following the football around Europe! My posts so far have been pretty lengthy and I’ve not looked at using list based posts but I’ll be sure to consider some of these tips. Thanks!
Great tips, thank you very much! I just started my Travel Blog and really need any help I can get. Check it out if you want to http://www.goeatexplore.com
Some good advice there. I was surprised by the list thing. I’d never really thought that it would be important, but I suppose that when I look around Twitter and other social media outlets, you do see a lot of blog articles in list form. I wonder why it’s so important.
Thanks for the tip!
Great article Matt and really useful for me! I’ve been traveling on and off for the last 10 years and I finally decided to list down all my adventures. Still a long way to go as I’m 10 years and 80+ countries behind of blogging! Your site really gave me motivation to open up my own blog and these tips are really usefull. If you have time check out my website (www.flyingdutchmanpat.com). Keep up the good work Matt!
Thanks for the post. I just found it when I needed a positive push to keep up believing in my own travel website, yes, the hardest part is to be consistent and not give up.
Thanks for the post. I just found it when I needed a positive push to keep up believing in my own travel website, yes, the hardest part is to be consistent and not to give up.