Need Readers for your Travel Blog? Be a Guest Author!

Updated: Dec 13th, 2010

Do you get invited to submit guest posts on other travel blogs?

If you’re a Travel Blogger, you should not only take advantage of any invitation that you receive to submit a guest post to other travel blogs or travel related website, you should also be actively seeking such opportunities, and offering to write for other travel blogs as well.

I can hear bunches of you all asking the same question – “Why should I do that?

A Guest Author relationship benefits both the Author and the hosting travel blog

Simple. It’s like any other type of networking – by writing for another travel blog you’re exposing yourself (in a good way, not that “scare-the-kids-and-get-carted-off-to-jail-in-handcuffs” kind of way) to that blog’s readers, thereby helping to grow your audience, and in the process, by promoting (on your travel blog) your Guest Post on the other travel blog, you’re letting your readers know about that site and helping them to grow their audience as well. It’s “win/win” for both of you.

Another great benefit is the links you’ll gain back to your site, which helps improve your ranking in Google and other search engines.

A good quality Travel Blog should give guest authors – at the very least – a link back to the guest author’s travel blog as part of the article’s meta data (author info at the end of the post), and often they will allow additional author info such as a photo, biography, and social media links so that you can get new Twitter followers and/or Facebook friends and fans.

And remember, this networking opportunity works both ways! When you invite others to submit guest posts to your blog, the same benefits apply – you’ll gain new readers and links as the guest blogger promotes his or her guest post on your blog.

Tips for being a Good Guest Author
If you’ve been invited (or are offering) to submit a guest post, be sure to do the following:

  • Do your homework – read some of the posts of the travel blog you’d like to write for to get a feel for what types and styles of articles they normally publish. If they have guidelines for submitting articles, read them;
  • Ask if the blog owner has a specific topic in mind for your Guest Post, and offer a couple of topic suggestions in case they don’t or are just open to ideas;
  • Ask how many words they would like, and if they’d like you to provide images as well (be sure the images are your own or are royalty-free);
  • If you have a really good video to go with your post, offer it as well, but make sure that it’s been edited to look nice, isn’t too long, and any credits thank your hosting travel blog also;
  • Understand that your blog host may do some light editing (usually only styles such as bolding and italicizing words and phrases, adding paragraph breaks, etc) but if they do wind up correcting things such as spelling and grammar, be grateful – if keeps you looking good!;
  • Ask if you should provide a bIo, photo, and other social network links besides your own travel blog link to be included;

Tips for being a Good Guest Blog Host
If you’ve invited someone to submit a guest blog post to your travel blog, try to keep this advice in mind:

  • If you have a specific story topic or perspective you’d like, say so. If not, be open to suggestions;
  • Keep your readers in mind – what would interest them? Realize that sometimes it’s good to break outside of your normal realm;
  • Try to keep your copyediting to a minimum – after all, every travel writer has their own “voice” and you don’t want to stifle that;
  • DO make corrections if you find spelling or grammar errors – you want your guest authors to look good to your audience – but it’s nice to ask beforehand if your guest author minds such edits;
  • Incentivize guest authors! Give them the ability to draw readers to their own travel blogs by displaying a link to their site in your post meta section, and if your WordPress Theme has an Author Template (author.php) use it to your Author’s advantage by including their photo, bio, and additional links. Want an example? Check out one of our Author pages by clicking on the Author name on any of our posts on this site (just below the date at the top of the post);

The Travel Blogger community is one of the strongest and most supportive out there, and a Guest Author relationship benefits both the Author and the hosting travel blog, so take advantage of it!

By the way, we have an open invitation to all experienced travel bloggers to write for our site – read this page on Guest Travel Blogging for more information.

~Trisha

Do you submit or publish guest blog posts? Share your experience!

About Trisha Miller 116 Articles
Trisha Miller Editor-in-Chief, TravelWritersExchange.com - Trisha joined the Travel Industry in 1996 with a background in telecommunications and helped to build (and later sell) one of the industry's top inbound call centers specializing in air travel. Her career in Travel Writing began with creating destination-specific content for a corporate travel intranet, and continued as she contributed content to a large number of travel-related companies that were establishing an online presence throughout the late '90's and early '00's. Currently she is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and a former Board Member of the International Food, Wine, and Travel Writers Association (2009-2015).  Still a frequent world traveler, and occasional guest-blogger on a number of other Travel Blogs, Trisha writes about travel and technology, sometimes both at the same time. You can follow Trisha on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/TravelWriting

16 Comments

  1. Great advice. I have found that guest blogs not only have brought people to our site, but we have also made great friends through it. We have also developed a bit of a community. Now that we have done several guest posts, we are finally running our own series for guest posts. We wanted to wait until we became better known out there before asking people to write for us, because we definitely wanted to be able to give something back to them. We have more readers now, so we feel confident that we can offer our guest writer some traffic through our page and twitter.

  2. Sound advice. “Actively seeking” is the opportune phrase. Nothing comes to those who sit and wait. Plus, in helping others we usually help ourselves. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

  3. @ Dave and Deb – I agree! It’s a great way to connect with other writers and make good friends – I have found that the travel writing community is extremely supportive of one another and I’m really glad to be a part of it!

    @ Joann – thank you! And you’re right – passivity gets us exactly nowhere.

  4. Allowing guest bloggers is certainly beneficial for both the blogger and the guest blogger. For the host blogger you are able to get another perspective as well as more content to your site. For the guest blogger they are able to gain more exposure as well as getting a backlink which can help seo your site. Great information here on your blog, I am happy I came across it.

  5. Trisha, I was recently contacted by a discount travel company to do a guest post on their blog (separate from the main website, but definitely affiliated). The travel company has a questionable reputation. Is it better to take a pass on this opportunity, or is any guest blogging opportunity a good one?
    .-= Nicole´s last blog post: Backyard Adventures- County Fair =-.

    • Hi Nicole – that’s a great question, but a tough one to answer. For me, the bottom line is always “what will it do for me?” (as it should be for any writer/blogger). Does the travel company’s blog offer you the opportunity to pick up good traffic and new readers? Does their blog carry decent GooglePR and search engine ranking? (in order for the link back to be of value to you).

      Although I’m rarely in favor of contributing content to travel (sales) sites that can afford to pay for it but don’t, there are situations where the benefit to you is more valuable than a paycheck might be, and in those situations I’d say go for it.

      BUT when you say this particular site has a “questionable reputation”, that concerns me – is it bad enough that your own reputation might be sullied by association? Have they had other guest bloggers? If so you might contact them to see what experience they had and whether they would guest blog again for the same company.

      By weighing all of the factors – benefit to you in terms of traffic, readers, and incoming links to your site vs. the potential to have your reputation tarnished – and taking into account the opinions of other guest bloggers they’ve featured (if any), you should be able to make a decision that is right for you.

      Good luck and I’d be interested in knowing how it turns out – do be sure to let me know!

  6. I’ve always found doing guest posting is a great way to keep our staff interested in travelling and make sure they know what they are talking about!! Showing off how well you can write is never a bad thing.

  7. I have been following your blog for a while. I can say without hesitation that you have done some remarkable work and put a great and informative content on it. Moreover, I have noticed that you are accepting guest posts as well, so I thought of contributing my ideas to your blog. I have done a comprehensive research on the topics that are related to your blog and can offer you a piece of them.

    It will not only attract more visitors but also help them get the informative stuff on the subject. Please let me know if you can accept my blog post. I assure you that the content will be informative, relevant, unique, and will provide help to the blog visitors. Furthermore, being a professional writer, I know the ethics of guest posting, and assure you of following Google guidelines in that matter.

    Thanks with regards,
    Sanjay Agarwal.

    • Hello Sanjay,

      Thank you for coming by the site and commenting, and for your inquiry about submitting a guest post.

      To help you better understand our site, TWE is not about travel destinations or travel stories, but rather it is about advice and resources for travel writers to improve their craft and earn a living at writing. This is why we look for professional writers (those who are paid a steady income to write about travel) or those who have successful travel blogs (with a high PageRank and significant traffic) to give back to other writers (particularly beginners) with advice and tips.

      If you meet either of those requirements, please feel free to propose a topic idea by using the form on This Page and I will consider it.

  8. Hi Trisha,

    I have started opening up my blog to guest posts, but still say no to commercial companies in most cases.

    I think its useful to know who your guest writer is and what they aim to get from it.

    Thanks

    Duncan

    • Hi Duncan – thanks for stopping by!

      I generally do the same – decline posts from commercial bloggers – unless the blogger is extremely knowledgeable about a topic that would be of interest to our readers, and the commercial site they want to link to is highly relevant, then occasionally I do make an exception. But regardless I always check out potential guest authors carefully to be sure they’re qualified to give advice!

      Nice job on your own site, by the way – lots of useful info!

  9. Yay! Just the advice I needed at just the right time. I’ve been a bit slow to get started guest posting – even though I know it’s a great thing to do – but your outline & tips help break it down and get me moving in the right direction. Thanks,

    • Glad to hear that we’ve helped in some way – thanks for sharing that!

      Another tip: get in touch with local travel agencies (or those that specialize in travel to/around the UK) and offer them some articles for their websites…..many are always looking for interesting content to add, and you can get known as a local “expert” and go-to guy for local reviews.

      Good luck!

    • Hi Johnny – if you’re referring to what is commonly called “sponsored posts” (or sponsored content), that is very different from a typical guest post that we’re referring to here.

      When a guest post is created to send traffic (and potential buyers) to a primarily-commercial website, it’s considered an “advertorial” (a less-obvious form of advertising), and the hosting blog owner should get paid for that, since the author of the post (or the website that gets the link-back) benefits financially.

      What we are recommending in this post is for a blogger who just wants to expand their audience and get new readers to their non-commercial blog.

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