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1. 

   chinaguide
   Member

   Hello fellow writers:

   I am a tour director with aspirations to also be a professional travel writer. I have been doing AWAI's travel writing course off and on for several months-well, mostly off so , need to start over. It's a great course, although I do get side-tracked (which is why it has been mostly off). The problem is that the forum for travel writers for AWAI isn't used much so, it may be 6 months before there is a response. I need more regular support to keep me going so that I don't get side-tracked and produce great travel writing.

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. 

   Amandah Blackwell
   Moderator

   Hello,

   I'm Rebecca -- A tour director sounds like fun! What tours do you provide? How is AWAI's travel course? Has it been helpful to you?

   I understand what you mean about support. I'll do my best to answer any questions you have.

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. 

   Trisha Miller
   Administrator

   Welcome ChinaGuide!

   I'm glad Rebecca jumped in - she's a great resource for advice & tips.

   I can't guarantee that I'll always respond the same day, although I DO make an effort to - but I can guarantee you that you'll certainly never have to wait six months for a response! I know AWAI is a good company, so they are probably just suffering from some growing pains and maybe a shift in focus. While our Forum isn't huge, we do have some good regular members who are active and helpful, so you should get the support you're seeking here. Any time you have a question post it in the Forum, and stop by now and then to voice your opinion.

   If you haven't already, be sure to sign up for the Weekly Recap newsletter so you can stay abreast of articles and also we put some extra, exclusive goodies and information in there just for subscribers.

   I agree with Rebecca - being a Tour Guide does sound like a fun job. That's a career I've often though about trying....maybe someday!

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. 

   chinaguide
   Member

   Being a TD is a fun job but, a bit frustrating. I am busy from mid March to mid June. There are some really slow times when there aren't much. I am in the DC area and do mostly student tours. And every year I get frustrated with those slow times. My goal for getting into the tour business was to lead tours to China. Unfortunately, international tours are hard to break into, especially for China (they require national local guides) and many, especially in today's economy do not hire TDs.

   I do have a question about blogging. I have toyed with it here and there. What is the best site to use, blogger, or one that caters to travelers like travelpod? I have one on blogger and just started one on today.com. I know pictures really help a blog stand out. I attempted in attaching some pictures on the today.com blog but, it said they were too big. Any suggestions?

   As for AWAI, I think it is a good course with great information but, like I said there isn't much support. One of the assignments is to find a writing buddy online. Unfortunately, not many people go on the forum, especially the travel writing section. So, hopefully this forum will be better for me.

   I just realized that I didn't introduce myself. My name is Cybele Owen. My maiden name is Wu, so, I am 1/4 Chinese. Glad to hear from both of you!

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. 

   Amandah Blackwell
   Moderator

   Wow, D.C.! I haven't been there, but it's on my list. Ditto for China. I would love to walk the Great Wall of China. It's on my list as well. I've always had an affinity for Eastern philosophy and stuff like that.

   I use WordPress.org (free, need hosting company), but you could use WordPress.com which is free (no need for a hosting company). Pictures, podcasts, graphics, and unique content are great for blogs. WordPress is pretty easy to use. I haven't had any issues with graphics or videos. Hope this helped.

   Posted 2 years ago #
6. 

   Trisha Miller
   Administrator

   I've never used Blogger (blogspot) but from what I've read and heard, WordPress is much, much easier to use, and it's very easy to add any kind of media to a wordpress blog.

   BUT - and this is an important "but" - you need to put some thought into what your intention is for your blog - if it's just to be a diary of your travels and you're not looking to earn any ad revenue from it (ever) then Wordpress.com is where you go to get a free hosted blog. If you need more flexibility and control and want to put ads on your site to earn some $$, then you'll need to get site hosting elsewhere and just download the WordPress software from Wordpress.ORG - a different site from Wordpress.COM, because Wordpress.COM does not allow any commercial use of their free hosting, including displaying ads.

   A number of Hosting companies offer what they call automatic installation of Wordpress (aka 1 click installation) so be sure to check that out before you sign up for hosting anywhere.

   Let us know what you decide!

   Posted 2 years ago #
7. 

   chinaguide
   Member

   I haven't had any problems so far with blogger so far. I checked out WordPress but, I will have to research it more. Can you tell me more about putting ads on a blog. How difficult is it? On average, about how much does a successful blog make per month from advertising? Do you have any recommendations for hosting for a blog?

   I have a love affair with Asia, especially with China. I love Asian arts and food. It is part of my heritage so, I have a passion for it. I also have been studying wushu (kung-fu)for a couple of years now.

   If you have any questions about China or DC, I'd be happy to help you.

   I have to say, I am very pleased with this forum. It is great to get responses and to get my questions answered. So, thank you for the great job you are doing!!!

   Posted 2 years ago #
8. 

   Amandah Blackwell
   Moderator

   Monetizing Your Blog

   Putting blogs on ads is easy, it's driving the traffic and earning affiliate monies that can be tricky. Check out the pages under "Monetize Your Writing" on Travel-Writers-Exchange's home page (on the right hand side of the page) to learn more. I also write some posts about this subject so you may want to peruse the archives.

   You can sign up with Commission Junction, LinkShare, or Google Performics for free and choose merchants that correlate to your blog. You'll want to do some keyword research. I use Google AdSense Keyword Tools, Google Trends, and Google Insights for Search. I also will type in a keyword and look at the ads that are running. I'll also click on "Options" so I can see what is running on YouTube, forums, and things like that.

   Some bloggers make hundreds of dollars a day, some claim to make thousands of dollars per month, and some don't make anything at all.

   Hosting a blog

   I use BlueHost and, I'm happy with them. They just upgraded their services. I believe 1&1 Hosting is supposed to be a great hosting company as well. Check out the blog
   Connect to the Right Web Host with the WHIR. This website is all about web hosting.

   I hope this helped...

   If you have any information on great and affordable places to stay in China, I'd appreciate it. I don't mind staying in hostels. I would like to see the Terracotta Warriors and a few other sites as well.

   Rebecca

   Posted 2 years ago #
9. 

   chinaguide
   Member

   Rebecca & Trisha:

   Thank you so much for all of your great advice! Making money by blogging is a new concept for me. I understand that you can place ads on your blog or website and then you get paid for people clicking on those ads. But, how do you insure that they will click on those ads? And how do you direct people to your blog? Besides sending the link to your friends and family, how does traffic get directed to your blog?

   A friend said that TypePad is also a good blogging site. What is your impression of it?

   As for cheap places to stay in China, I am not sure. It has been several years since I went. And when I was in Shanghai, I stayed with family. You might want to look into foreign language schools. Many of them have dormatories that you can stay at at the fraction of the price of a hotel. Also, check out the Lonely Planet Guide to China. It was my bible when I was there. I think it is the best travel guide for China.

   Posted 2 years ago #
10. 

    Trisha Miller
    Administrator

    OMG so many things to tell you! But, one step at a time....

    First, TypePad is a paid service that hosts your blog for you, whereas Wordpress.com and BlogSpot.com are free. Beyond that I don't know a lot, except that some people like them and other people don't. It's one of those things where you have to try it out for yourself to see if it's a good fit for you, and if you think it's worth paying for. You can try their "free trial" and be sure you take time to read all of their terms and conditions to be sure there isn't something there that you might find disagreeable.

    On the ads you might choose to put on your site, there really isn't a way to "make" anyone click on them - the best you can do is to offer ads that are highly relevant to the reason they are coming to your site in the first place, which should - hopefully - make them "want" to click on the ads.

    As for getting traffic, that takes time and work. You have to write - a LOT - of good content and stay focused on your niche so that Google and other search engines can understand what your site is about, and rank you for that according to how your site compares to other sites within your nice. A high ranking will mean plenty of site traffic. So you need to look at the other websites that are like yours to see what they are doing to get high ranking. Are the good sites? Do you like them? Study what they do carefully, and try to be like them.

    It's critical to keep your focus narrow enough that you can dominate your niche, and it's critical to know what words (called keywords) will bring people to your site - those are the words and terms someone puts in the search box at Google or other search engines to find what they are looking for. Research all those words, and for each article pick a couple of those words or phrases and be sure to use them - in a natural sounding way - when you write. That way the search engines know to match up your site when someone searches on those words.

    And of course you can promote your blog through social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc. Keep working at it and you will get site visitors.

    Posted 2 years ago #

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